The episode starts with Boone’s injuries. Jack tells Boone that he is going to fix this – that he will save him. But he struggles with the lack of needles, blood, and other things he needs. Sun tells Jack that he can’t save Boone, even if he amputates the leg, since he is bleeding internally, and Jack responds with Locke’s catchphrase, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” Eventually Boone lets Jack off the hook from his promise and asks him to let him go.

In flashbacks we see Jack preparing for his wedding. His wife-to-be Sarah tells how she was in a car accident, and how Jack fixed her, calling him her hero. Both Sarah and Jack’s father talk about commitment as characteristic of him.

While Jack is busy taking care of Boone, Claire goes into labor. Kate finds her. Jack is giving blood to Boone and so can’t go. Claire gives birth to a son, and Boone dies.

Shannon was away with Sayid, and so only gets the news the next morning.

At the end of the episode, Jack says Boone didn’t die – he was murdered. And he sets off to find John Locke.

Lots of key aspects of characters’ stories – Jack’s, Sayid’s, Claire’s and Aaron’s, Locke’s – are all carried forward by this episode. But probably most significant was the fact that we saw a major character, someone who had been a regular since the first episode, die. Boone would not be the last – and indeed, as Christian Shepard says in the final episode of the series, “Everyone dies sometime.”

Wow, what a timely episode to highlight in the wake of the Brittany Maynard story.

This episode was the one where I realized I was watching excellent story writing taking place. While I didn’t enjoy the last couple of seasons the way I did the first couple, this season ranks among my favorite of any show, and this episode had me hooked.